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Angel
( ) |name=Liam, Angelus, Angel |sex=Male |species= |dob=16th |mob=5 |yob=1727 |age=Ageless |facs=Angel InvestigationsCategory:Angel Investigations, Seelie CourtCategory:Seelie Court |birthplace=Galway, Ireland |height=6'1" |build=Athletic |hair=Brown |eyes=Brown |skin=Pale |actor=David Boreanaz |music=Darling Violetta - Catharsis of Sufferance }}Overview= Angel was one of the most famous vampires of all time in vampire history, legendary for both his savage villainy and his great heroism. Born Liam in 1727 in Galway, Ireland, he was sired by Darla in 1753 and changed his name to Angelus and was dubbed The Scourge of Europe, earning notoriety for being one of the most sadistic and brutal demons in history, and the most evil vampire ever recorded. Both The Master and the First Evil recognized how purely evil Angelus was. He was also known as The Demon with the Face of an Angel or The One with the Angelic Face because of his physical beauty. However, in 1898, Angelus was cursed by the members of Clan Kalderash as vengeance for killing a member of their clan. They returned his soul, forcing him to live eternally in guilt over the countless crimes he had committed. In the late 20th century, Angel, as he began calling himself, became an ally to Buffy Summers. After the two were forced to realize their limitations as a couple, Angel left Buffy and moved to Los Angeles, where he became a Champion of the Powers That Be and dedicated himself to "helping the helpless" in the hope of achieving atonement. Personality Angel tends to be reserved and is often seen as more wounded up and uptight in contrast to other characters, sometimes even rivaling Wesley and Giles. His most prominent and mocked trait was his tendency to be overly gloomy and brooding. Before moving to Los Angeles, he was inclined to spend much of his time alone, and was never open with friends or allies, with the exception of Buffy to an extent, though he still kept quiet about his past from her, as he felt it would disgust her. The sins he committed when souless are constantly at the back of his mind, to a degree where he felt for a very long time that he did not deserve happiness or redemption. He defied Whistler's wishes for him to help Buffy at first, and many years later, when he was offered a chance to live without his vampiric weaknesses with the Gem of Amara, he chose to destroy it instead, justifying that he needed to continue living with his punishment. He also refused Drusilla's offer to remove his pain with her Lorophage Demon because he felt that his guilt drove him to do good and kept Angelus at bay. While Angel's belief in his mission for redemption fluctuates frequently over being worth it, he still continued to help others as a champion. Angel was quite self-detrimental and was prone to long spells of doubt, depression and regret. He still felt that he was far from deserving of contentment, but worked tirelessly to prove himself to his peers and the Powers That Be. Still, for a long time he believed himself a lost cause. When he fed off the body of a shop keeper in a moment of weakness in the 1970s, he resigned himself to a life of homelessness, and was not stirred out of it until Whistler showed him Buffy Summers approximately twenty years later. Though this state of mind changed somewhat when he fell in love with Buffy, it wasn't until he learned about the Shanshu Prophecy that he truly began believing in himself and his actions. Angel was also established as detached from reality, and didn't find many things in his life he could look forward to. Unlike humans, who grow and learn as they age, Angel was frozen in time. He has an almost unhealthy obsession with his destiny; he will follow almost any metaphorical road as long as he believes it will help people (specifically Buffy or himself) to achieve what they were destined for. Because of this, he could easily make dangerous decisions. Despite this, he nonetheless displayed a tendency to throw taunts and insults to his enemies or just those he intensely disliked. Angel also possessed a sense of humor despite his serious personality, usually in the form of dark sarcasm. He was also very self-conscious, and worried what other people thought of him very often. He believed he had little talent with words, and disliked public speaking. During his first year in Los Angeles with Angel Investigations, he displayed an acute lack of people skills, and was very anti-social and reclusive. He worried constantly what people would think of him, and was reluctant to drink blood around his friends. Simply put, Angel had difficulty trusting others, and it took him a long time to feel comfortable around his companions. Eventually, Angel became more comfortable with himself and social interaction the more he connected with people in Los Angeles, noting after a few months that he had come to think of his new colleagues as his family. He could also be unintentionally blunt in his reasoning and manner of speech, though this eventually became less frequent over the years. Angel's speech patterns were also established as cryptic and sometimes abbreviated, much to Buffy and others' frequent irritation. He had a tendency to bottle up his emotions, feelings and problems behind stoicism, causing him to appear difficult to read and secretive. According to his friends and despite his constant objection, he rarely smiled and only openly cried on one occasion. Angel was also somewhat of a natural nurturing figure, easily sympathizing with the hardships of others and taking it upon himself to be the one to guide them through it. His chivalry and sensitivity frequently made him prone to seeing others as his complete responsibility, specifically "damsels in distress". Angel's protective instincts towards others are intensified towards those he deeply loves, even to the point of being somewhat extreme. This is made most obvious through his interactions with Connor, Cordelia, and Buffy. Because of his borderline martyr complex, Angel has repeatedly sacrificed his own happiness for the sake of the world or individual people who mean a lot to him, such as giving up his humanity to in an attempt to save Buffy from her prophesied death and destroying the Gem of Amara. However, while Angel enjoyed "helping the helpless", he was also especially motivated by the prospect of redemption in the form of Shanshu. The thought that he might someday be forgiven for his past and allowed to live on deeply affected him, causing him to latch on to it immediately. Over the years, Angel became increasingly ambivalent over the Shanshu Prophecy, varying between focusing on doing good to achieve the prophecy and trying to do good for its own sake, eventually convincing himself by the fallout of Twilight that it was no longer possible because of all the damage he caused with a soul and without. For most of his ensouled depression, Angel's opinion of people was mostly uncaring and negative despite his newfound guilt for his sins. However, after meeting Buffy and seeing the well of inner strength she possessed, his outlook on humanity slowly changed. He naturally associated them with "always trying", no matter the cost, and more than once made reference to their right to choose over others' attempts to impose their own will on them. Angel admitted on two separate occasions he admired that about people, citing it as one of aspects that drove him to atone, a sharp contrast from his soulless counterpart who did not have faith in the "human condition" and believed their only purpose was to suffer and die. However, unlike Buffy, who adamantly refused to kill humans no matter how evil they were, Angel had no such reservations and would kill a human easily if they murdered or threatened innocents; for example, he unhesitatingly killed the human assassin Vanessa Brewer, whom Wolfram & Hart repeatedly prevented from being brought to justice for her crimes, when she was hired by them to kill three blind children. |-| Sheet= SIGNATURE ABILITY Champion Angel is a Champion of the generally unseen Powers That Be. As such, various factors can increase his performance. When he is on a direct mission from one of Cordelia's visions, he performs better than when he is not. In addition, he is destined to be a "major player in the Apocalypse." As such, if the world is legitimately threatened, his game REALLY steps up an entire order of magnitude, and he frequently finds himself able to accomplish things a single vampire should not. A third thing that can happen is that, in service of his destiny, circumstances will prevent his death--sometimes by even extremely improbable circumstances, like a snowstorm in Sunnydale. He may also sire a child if the universe or a Power requires it, as happened with Connor. He has even broken traditional vampire weaknesses when the Powers require he do so, like breaking the invitation threshold barrier to save a life. He has no control over when this assistance comes into play, and it cannot be consistently relied upon, but when he needs it most, something always seems to break his way. SKILLS POWERS ADVANTAGES ]] ]] WEAKNESSES |-| Background= Angel was born a human named Liam in Galway, Ireland in 1727 to a linen and silk merchant and his unknown wife. At the age of eighteen, Liam had a relationship with an aristocrat named Sarah Gilfried. As a result, he became disillusioned with the women of his era, and showed distaste for noblewomen in particular, describing them as "incredibly dull, simpering morons." Above all, he sought to meet someone "exciting" and "interesting." By his twenties, Liam had become a drunken, whoring layabout, whose only real ambition in life lay in someday seeing the world. Liam's father displayed near-constant disappointment in him, and was not reluctant to call him out on his shortcomings. Despite his strained relationship with his parents, he and his little sister, Kathy, had mutual affection for each other. Promising to show him the world, Darla and Liam meet. At the age of twenty-six, after a habitual night of drunken debauchery and failed attempts to seduce the family's only maidservant, Liam and his father got into a heated argument; enraged by his son's chronic reckless behavior, the older man declared that Liam was wasting his life, and slapped him in the face. Liam argued that he had only acted how his father wanted, and voiced his decision to leave home. Though his father reminded him that he would likely end up homeless and alone, Liam stormed out. He went to a tavern, where, drunk once more, he caught the eye of a seemingly affluent woman. After being kicked out of the bar for fighting, he followed the woman-the vampire, Darla-into an alleyway, where she promised to show him a whole new world, and then sired him. Darla visited his grave afterward, where everything seemed clear to him right before he had his first taste of blood when a grounds keeper caught them an accused them of being grave robbers. Liam quickly became one of the most powerful and twisted vampires to ever exist. The price of such competence: Liam's soul and capability to feel remorse for his actions. As a demon, Angelus acted on Liam's darkest impulses, and gave in to his every sinful whim. Liam took the name "Angelus", presumably inspired by his sister's mistaken belief that he was an angel. He was later described in historical volumes as the "one with the angelic face", and the "demon with the face of an angel."After leaving Ireland behind, Angelus and Darla cut a bloody swath through Wales and Northern England before reaching London in 1760. During Angelus' first meeting with Darla's sire, the Master, he openly mocked the older vampire, and showed no fear despite his greater age, power and authority. Afterward, he confronted Darla about her decision to remain underground; won over by Angelus' fearlessness, Darla chose to leave with Angelus, and temporarily abandoned her Master. May, 1764: Angelus and Darla killed the wife and infant son of vampire hunter Daniel Holtz, and turned his young daughter into a vampire, forcing him to destroy her. Holtz then devoted himself to capturing Angelus and Darla, and chased them across Europe. He managed to kill almost four-hundred other vampires in the process. 1765: Angelus and Darla had a near miss with Holtz in Arles after making too much noise by ordering room service and then eating the waiters. Darla fled to Vienna, knocking out and abandoning Angelus in a burning barn and riding off on their only horse. After meeting again in Vienna and eating a troubadour in Madrid, Angelus and Darla became acquainted with the vampires James and Elisabeth. 1767: Holtz tracked them down in Marseilles and managed to put numerous arrows in Angelus." After voyaging to Morocco, Holtz briefly lost them in northern Africa. 1771: Holtz tracked Angelus to Rome and captured him. With the assistance of Monsignor Rivalli, Holtz tortured Angelus while trying to figure out how to get Angelus to help him to capture Darla. But instead, Darlacame to the rescue with a horde of vampires. Darla declined to kill Holtz, telling Angelus that she was having too much fun tormenting him and he was now "like family." With this, Holtz abandoned his hunt and retired to York until 1773 when a demon named Sahjhan offered to take him to the future in exchange for his promise to kill the Angel and Darla of that time. 1786: Angelus sired a Puritan by the name of Penn, who mimicked Angelus by wreaking havoc on his father and killing his family. Over time, he began copying Angelus' "signature" of the time, carving a cross-shaped mark on the face of his victims in order to spite God. 1789: A lone Angelus encountered The Beast in Prussia, standing in a field of bodies. The Beast sought Angelus' aid in killing the Svear Priestesses, a group who wished to banish the Beast who could not kill them himself. When Angelus declined to assist the Beast, he was violently attacked, but a group of Svear priestesses banished the Beast while Angelus was passing out. December 25, 1838: Angelus won a card game and took his winnings by killing his opponent, a man named Daniel, in Dublin, Ireland, who was to be married the next day. 1860: a young woman named Drusilla from London caught the attention of Darla, who then presented her to Angelus, as a gift. Drusilla was "cursed" with the "sight"; the ability of foresight, something her mother saw as "an affront to the Lord." Drusilla and her sisters were all noted to be virgins, and Drusilla was described as being "sweet, pure and chaste." While posing as her priest in order to torment her, Angelus killed her family in front of her, which caused Drusilla to flee to a convent. On the day she was to take her holy orders, Angelus massacred the convent. After having sex with Darla on top of Drusilla, Angelus finally pushed her over the edge into complete insanity. It was at that point that he turned her into a vampire. Drusilla was Angelus' "masterpiece", an everlasting testament of his finest cruelty, as her immortality meant that her torment would never end. 1880: Desiring a companion of her own, Drusilla sired the mild-mannered and lovesick poet, William, to whom Angelus served as a mentor and role model for a while. William went so far as to consider the elder vampire his sire and "Yoda." Angelus taught William about the art of mass slaughter, including an incident during a wedding party where Angelus beat the groom to death with his own arm. When he realized how much William cared for Drusilla, Angelus had sex with her just to hurt him, an action William would never forgive. He abandoned Angelus' mentorship, and took on a reckless, rebellious persona that brought constant danger to Angelus' group, but remained a romantic at heart. 1883: Angelus killed a female servant named Margaret during a luxurious Christmas party in London. The woman had a young son, whom Angelus killed afterwards. 1888: William got himself, Angelus, Darla and Drusilla chased out of London and into an abandoned mine shaft in Yorkshire by an angry mob. Angelus and Darla outwardly wondered why they hadn't yet killed William, who had taken the alias "Spike", for his dangerously rebellious behavior. Angelus made an attempt to threaten him with mention of the Slayer, but Spike, who had never heard of the Slayer before, became instantly intrigued, and went on to develop an long-lasting obsession with; he murdered two Slayers, and became a particularly renowned vampire as a result. 1890: Angelus attended a production of Giselle by the Blinnikov, a Russian ballet troupe run by Count Kurskov. Despite being evil, he was moved to tears during the performance. The same year, Angelus and Spike used a trick that involved them holding hands and beheading their enemies with a length of wire in St. Petersburg, Russia. 1894: Angelus and Spike were captured in Rome, Italy by henchmen of The Immortal, a mysterious and seductive being with whom they both had a fierce rivalry. The two male vampires were restrained while The Immortal had a threesome with Darla and Drusilla, something that, incidentally, the female vampires never allowed Angelus and/or Spike to do. Angelus and Spike attempted to take revenge on the Immortal, but failed miserably. 1898: Angelus' unlife took a pivotal turn when he murdered the favorite daughter of a tribe of romani, the Kalderash clan in Borsa, Romania, who had been kidnapped and given to him by Darla as a " birthday present."To avenge her death, the Kalderash cursed him by restoring his human soul, thus afflicting him with a conscience and condemning him to an eternity of remorse for the crimes he had committed while soulless. Bedraggled and dirty, looking like a beggar, he attacked and tried to feed on a woman, but was unable to. June, 1900 (Boxer Rebellion): In China, Angelus tried to resume his life with Darla, but found himself able to kill only animals, murderers, and rapists while protecting innocents from Darla. Darla noticed this, angry at his deception and inability to kill innocent humans while Spike had recently killed a Slayer. She confronted him about it gave him the chance to prove himself by feeding on a baby whose parents Darla killed. He refused and instead rescued the child by jumping out of a window. 1902: Angelus fled and lived in self-imposed isolation, controlling the temptation to feed by avoiding humans altogether. He traveled to the United States, and arrived in New York City via Ellis Island. 1920s: Angelus spent some time in Chicago, where he saved a little lap dog from being run over by a car; however, he was tempted to feed on the dog's owner, a young woman who tried to seduce Angel, only to be harshly rejected. In Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, Angel had a disagreement with a demon named Boone over a señorita, for which Boone called him out. Angel fought Boone for three-and-a-half hours until the sun came up and Boone honorably let him go. Angel then spent time in Missoula, Montana during the Great Depression. World War II: Angel was coerced into undertaking a secret mission by the Demon Research Initiative. When they call him Angelus he informs them that he has shortened his name to "Angel". They sank him to the bottom of the ocean to rescue an American submarine crew from three vampires the Nazis had captured as part of their paranormal research activities: Spike, Nostroyev, and The Prince of Lies. After the American crew had captured the German submarine, the vampires had escaped their bonds and murdered most of the crew; the few survivors sought refuge behind a locked hatch. After the submarine suffered damage from a depth charge, Angel was forced to sire a mortally wounded Ensign Sam Lawson, as he was the only person who was able to repair the damage, and while Angel didn't care about the mission, he needed to have it succeed to get the US government to leave him alone, and he needed the submarine so he would not get trapped on the ocean floor. Proceeding these events, Angel went underground until the war was over. 1952: Angel was a resident of the Hyperion Hotel in Los Angeles. During this time, Angel attempted to stay to himself, avoiding interaction with other residents and patrons. Despite the numerous strange incidents, murders and suicides running rampant throughout the hotel (caused by a demon), he looked the other way when his help would have made a difference. After finding a young woman named Judy Kovacs hiding in his room, Angel tried to preserve his isolation, first by disarming and removing the man chasing her, then by ejecting Judy. However, her repeated attempts to interact with him allowed the two to form a budding friendship, which was very surprising and rare for Angel at that time in his life. Meanwhile, hotel staff and residents, including Judy, continued to become warped and Angel decided to help. He discovered the presence of a Thesulac Demon, a paranoia demon affecting the humans in the hotel, but by the time Angel learned how to defeat it and obtained the items required, the entire hotel was overcome with pathological paranoia. Mad with demon-induced hysteria, the hotel residents and staff turned on Judy after their suspicions were raised by a private detective. To save herself, Angel's new friend pointed the mob in his direction, saying he had been found with blood. With rabid fury, they ambushed Angel, beat him, and then hanged him. Embittered by the consequences of becoming close to a human, Angel abandoned Judy and everyone else. Instead of destroying the Thesulac as it was in his power to do, even when the demon gave him the opportunity, he personally gave the vicious demon free reign to prey upon and ravage them unhindered. Late 1970s: In New York, Angel witnessed a robbery at a doughnut shop. After the robber shot the employee and fled, Angel stayed with the man as he died. Unable to resist the sight and smell of the clerk's still-warm blood, Angel succumbed to his urges and fed on the body. Deeply disgusted by his own weakness, Angel fled the shop, and then exiled himself to a life of homelessness, living in alleyways and feeding on rats. 1996: The reclusive and emotionally tortured Angel was sought out by a demon named Whistler, who persuaded him to join the fight against the evil that had corrupted him and to help the newly-activated Slayer,Buffy Summers. Angel traveled to Hemery High School in Los Angeles, where he witnessed Buffy being called as the Slayer and her initial training under her Watcher, Merrick, as well as her emotional suffering over her new duties and her parents' deteriorating marriage. Filled with a new purpose in life, Angel resolved to help the Slayer, with whom he had fallen in love, and moved to Sunnydale, California, where Buffy was predestined to move the following year. Angel had fallen in love with Buffy the moment he'd laid eyes on her in Los Angeles. Soon afterward, he moved into his own apartment in Sunnydale, where he put himself on a strict diet of pig's blood. He didn't show himself until after Buffy had relocated to Sunnydale with her mother; he met her in an alley, at which time he warned her about The Harvest and gave her a silver cross for protection. Though they had mutual attraction to each other, Buffy was not aware of Angel's vampiric nature until several weeks after their first meeting. They kissed in Buffy's bedroom, which caused Angel to unintentionally revealed his vampire face. Though he fled, Buffy was privy to his secret, and sought to kill him after she mistakenly believed he had attacked her mother. In reality, Angel's sire, Darla, had tricked Joyce Summers into inviting her inside and then bitten her. Angel battled with Darla, and managed to kill her when Buffy involved herself in the fight. Afterward, he revealed that he was unique among his kind for possessing soul, which was cursed upon him as a punishment for brutally murdering the favored daughter of an ancient romani clan. In the following days and weeks, Buffy came to realize that she had fallen in love with Angel. Though they both tried to deny their feelings, they simply could not resist their growing passion, and eventually began dating. Spike and Drusilla's arrival in Sunnydale during Buffy's sophomore year created tension in her relationship with Angel. When she witnessed him talking to Drusilla in a park, he was forced to give Buffy and the Scoobies insight into his particularly bloody history. He was subsequently kidnapped by Spike's minions in order to restore Drusilla to health. Though Buffy managed to rescue him in time to save his life, Drusilla still recovered. She and her lover then sought to reawaken a demon called the Judge to bring an end to the human race. Angel was tasked with traveling abroad to hide one of the pieces of the Judge. Before leaving, he gave her a Claddagh ring for her seventeenth birthday, as was a traditional courting gift in Ireland. Before he could depart, he was Angel gives Buffy a traditional Claddagh ring for her 17th birthday. They escaped Spike's minions and fled to Angel's apartment, where they consummated their relationship. Because Angel experienced a moment of pure happiness, his curse was activated once more and caused the removal of his soul. He reverted to his souless state, and swiftly returned to his old ways. Furious and disgusted that Buffy had caused him to feel love, he vowed to destroy her in a way similar to what he had done to Drusilla. Angelus allied himself once again with Spike and Drusilla and took residence in their factory. Resenting the humiliation he felt because Buffy had made Angel feel like a human being, Angelus took immense pleasure in tormenting the Slayer and her friends. First, he helped Spike and Dru deploy the Judge to incinerate the human race. After Buffy destroyed the Judge, Angelus embarked on a guerrilla campaign, lurking in the shadows, preying on Buffy's classmates, sending her gruesome messages, drawing pictures of her as she slept and leaving them in her bedroom. He even revealed the fact Buffy had sex with him to her mother Joyce, pretending to be an obsessed, unstable, love-struck boyfriend. Angelus' reign of terror culminated in his murder of Jenny Calendar, which served him in two ways. First, he eliminated an enemy (Jenny was born Janna of the Kalderash Clan) and destroyed her work just as she had managed to successfully decipher the lost curse which could be used to restore his soul. Second, Angelus used Jenny's death to viciously torment Rupert Giles, Jenny's paramour and the person whom Buffy depended most, being her Watcher. Enraged, Giles went out and tried to kill Angelus, though only succeeded in burning down the factory he lived in. Along with Spike and Drusilla, Angelus then moved to an abandoned mansion. After Angelus orchestrated this masterpiece of terror, Drusilla drew his attention to a new opportunity for destruction and chaos. Angelus widened his focus and began a scheme to awaken the demon Acathla and bring about the end of the world. Buffy was determined to stop him. Not knowing how to perform the ritual, Angelus kidnapped Giles and tortured him, wanting to know how to do it, though also doing it for the sake of his own enjoyment. In their final fight, Angelus was defeated by Buffy during a full-blown sword fight. Just as Acathla opened the vortex into his hell dimension, Buffy's best friend, Willow Rosenberg, used the ritual Jenny had rediscovered and preserved to restore his soul. Since Acathla could only be stopped by the blood of the individual who activated him, Buffy was forced to impale her beloved Angel to save the world. Impaled on the Slayer's enchanted sword, Angel could only stand there as he was sucked into the closing vortex. A few months later, Angel was unexpectedly released from Acathla's hell, reappearing in his mansion in a feral state. Because time can run differently between dimensions, he had experienced a century of brutal torment and was little more than a rabid animal in behavior. Buffy aided him in secret, fostering his rehabilitation. Angel remained feral and she had to chain him up, but he eventually broke out and came to Buffy's rescue when one of her classmates turned into a monster and attacked her. Angel killed him and finally recognized Buffy afterward, and regained his sanity. When they discovered that Angel had returned and Buffy had not told them, Buffy's friends were disgusted and furious, though Angel managed to win back some good faith and acceptance in the gang after he saved Willow from being killed by the corrupt former Watcher Gwendolyn Post. Angel began to suspect that his return from Hell was not accidental, that he must be meant to serve some unknown purpose. That fear -- that this purpose was not for the cause of good -- grew in Angel's mind at Christmastime as he began to experience what he believed to be hallucinations. However, he was actually being haunted by the First Evil, who claimed to be the one that freed him from Acathla's world (a claim that remains unconfirmed). The First, able to adopt the appearances of Angelus' victims, drove Angel ever closer to the brink of madness by lashing him with guilt and, ultimately, tempting him to end it all by losing his soul once again and killing Buffy in the throes of passion. In despair, Angel chose to kill himself by waiting outside for the sun to rise, rather than risk the life of his beloved Slayer. To Angel's shock and consternation, an apparent miracle occurred and it snowed so heavily that Christmas morning that the sun was blotted out all day. From that moment, he began to entertain the hope that his return might have some purpose for good after all. When the latest Slayer, Faith Lehane, began to go rogue after accidentally killing the Deputy Mayor, Angel attempted to rehabilitate her and nearly succeeded, but his chances at redeeming her were ruined by the interference of Buffy's new Watcher, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, and a special ops team sent by the Watchers Council, who only succeeded in driving Faith even farther down the path of darkness. Later, when Faith began working for the evil Mayor, Richard Wilkins, as a double agent, the duo attempted to force Angel to revert to his souless state once again and appeared to succeed; fortunately, this was in fact revealed to be an elaborate ruse masterminded by Buffy and Angel, with some help from Giles, to expose Faith's new loyalties. After that miraculous snowy day in southern California, Angel and Buffy tried to build an actual relationship, taking in the occasional movie, getting away on more scenic patrols, and enjoying moonlit picnics in the cemetery. But it was not to be. Even before their one and only night together, Angel had worried about Buffy's future with him, his inability to give her a family, or even a remotely normal human life. Upon hearing his own concerns reflected back to him from such disparate sources as Mayor Wilkins and Joyce, Angel at last made the difficult decision to leave Sunnydale and Buffy, hoping to give her some semblance of a normal life. Angel broke up with Buffy in the sewer right before her prom night, but went to the dance to let Buffy have her perfect high school moment. Before the Mayor's Ascension, Faith infected Angel with the "Killer of the Dead," a poison specifically designed to kill vampires that could only be cured by the blood of a Slayer, in order to distract Buffy. Having failed to bring a dead Faith to Angel to cure him, Buffy forced Angel to feed from her. Even Angel resisted at first, he was enraged when Buffy hit him enough that he indulged himself on Buffy's blood, almost killing her but stopping before he could drain her completely. Having quickly recovered from his poison, Angel rushed Buffy to the hospital where he stopped the grieving Mayor from smothering Buffy. Angel promised Buffy that he would stay until Sunnydale High's Graduation Day, to help avert the Mayor's Ascension. He also warned her that, if they survived the ordeal, he would leave without saying goodbye, as it would be too painful to not do so. They survived with Angel commanding a small number of fighters to surround the Mayor's vampire henchmen. After the destruction of Sunnydale High, Angel, with a last, long look at the Slayer, kept his final promise and departed for Los Angeles. In Los Angeles, Angel spent a few months alone, patrolling dives and dark alleys, battling vampires who hunt there and fighting the blood lust that had been reawakened when he fed from Buffy by not getting close to the humans he was trying to help. Soon enough, he received support in his attempts to redeem himself in the service of others. First, Doyle, a half-Brachen Demon and fellow Irishman with precognitive abilities was sent by The Powers That Be to be Angel's guide. Almost immediately thereafter, Angel ran into Cordelia Chase, a former classmate of Buffy's who had moved to Los Angeles to find wealth and fame. The trio formed Angel Investigations, a private detective agency whose mission statement was to "help the helpless." Doing this, Angel attracted the attention of the evil law firm, Wolfram & Hart. The trio managed to do a lot of good, but when Doyle had a vision of Buffy in danger at Thanksgiving, Angel immediately returned to Sunnydale to help against Hus, a Native American vengeance spirit accidentally set free by Xander Harris' construction crew. However, Angel made his presence known to all of the Scoobies except Buffy under the belief that his presence would only distract and endanger her even more. Upon discovering the truth, Buffy, hurt that Angel never revealed his presence to her, immediately traveled to Los Angeles to confront him, and the two agreed to stay away from one another for the time being. Just as she was about to leave, however, the two were attacked by a Mohra Demon. Though the duo succeeded in wounding it, the Mohra escaped, and Buffy and Angel immediately tracked it down in the sewers. The two became separated, and Angel seemingly killed the demon, and in doing so, its blood mixed with his own and resurrected him, making him human again. Buffy and Angel reveled in finally being able to be happy together, but Angel soon discovered that the Powers That Be had not yet offered him forgiveness as he had not sufficiently atoned. When Angel was nearly killed by the regenerated Mohra, Buffy managed to slay it with his help. Upon discovering that Buffy would die much sooner if he remained human, Angel made an impossibly painful decision: he had the Oracles rewind time to reverse his transformation into a human, leaving no one but himself with any memory of the incident. Eventually, Doyle, Angel's trusted friend and sole connection to the Powers That Be, sacrificed himself to save others, leading Angel to become even more protective of those few he held dear. Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, who had briefly served as Watcher to both Buffy and Faith Lehane in Sunnydale, arrived in Los Angeles around that time, claiming to be a "rogue demon hunter," a "lone wolf sort" who only worked solo. After their first case, however, Wesley was eager to stay and assist Angel and Cordelia, who had inherited the visions from the Powers that Be from Doyle, in their mission. A few months later, they were joined by lifelong demon fighter Charles Gunn after Angel resolved a vampire-human street conflict that was turning in favor of the former. During this time, three young Wolfram & Hart associates, Lindsey McDonald, Lee Mercer, and Lilah Morgan, attempted to have Faith assassinate Angel. After an intense battle in which Faith seemed to have the upper hand, Faith broke down and pleaded with Angel to kill her. Even as Buffy, the Watchers Council, and the Los Angeles Police Department pursued Faith, Angel continued to help her. When Faith gave herself up to the police, he and Buffy got into an argument, during which Buffy used her relationship with her new boyfriend, Riley Finn, to attack him. In response, Angel launched a tirade against Buffy, reminding her that, while it was great that she had moved on, he himself could not and had no one with whom to share his pain, culminating in him telling Buffy that she didn't know him anymore and that she had no right to just show up with her "great new life" and tell him how to do things in "his city" before harshly ordering her to go back to Sunnydale. Immediately afterward, Angel regretted his words and traveled to Sunnydale to make amends. Though he ran afoul of Riley and the Initiative in the process, he managed to get to Buffy and apologize, who also apologized for butting into his life, and Angel departed after informing Buffy that he didn't like Riley, much to Buffy's amusement. Later, Angel and his teammates uncover the Shanshu Prophecy. The prophecy reveals that the vampire with a soul will play a pivotal role in the apocalypse, and upon fulfilling his destiny, would be rewarded by being made human. The Angel Investigations team enlisted the help of demon karaoke bar-owner, Lorne, initially known only as The Host. Both prescient and empathic, Lorne could sense the futures of humans and demons when they sang. As Angel continued to help the helpless in Los Angeles, his good deeds began seriously to disrupt the plans of Wolfram & Hart. In an attempt to control him, the firm resurrected his sire and former lover, Darla, though she came back as a human rather than as a vampire. Angel became obsessed with Darla on two fronts; at first, he wanted to prove that she was actually back and not just a figment of his imagination and second, he desired to save her when it was revealed that she was dying from the same disease that was killing her before she was sired by the Master. Wolfram & Hart then summoned Drusilla, who turned Darla into a vampire again. Angel felt such deep anguish at his failure to save Darla, and such intense fury at Wolfram & Hart for their machinations, that he fired his crew and embarked on a bitter, ruthless vendetta against both the law firm and the newly reunited Darla and Drusilla. At his darkest moment, Angel allowed Drusilla and Darla to slaughter a number of prominent Wolfram & Hart employees, even locking them in the room to ensure that none would escape. Eventually, Holland Manners succeeded in completely breaking Angel's spirit by telling him that the power of Wolfram & Hart came from the evil within humanity itself and that nothing Angel did would ever amount to anything; depressed and tortured, Angel had sex with Darla in an attempt to shed his soul, but only found perfect despair rather than perfect happiness. An epiphany followed the desperate act, and Angel realized that his purpose was still to do all the good he could, even if he couldn't do all the good he wanted to. Having hoped to get Angel back, Darla was disgusted and infuriated by Angel's epiphany, and fled Los Angeles. The group finally reconciled, and Wesley was appointed the official leader. But Angel's relationship with his teammates, particularly Cordelia, was strained, though things improved rather quickly. After the death of Buffy's mother, Angel returned to Sunnydale to comfort Buffy, and the two spent a night discussing how life would continue after Joyce's death. Angel assured Buffy that she was strong and would find her way over time, and offered to stay in Sunnydale as long as she needed him, though she knew that he could not stay for long. Nonetheless, Buffy appreciated that he came, and he remained with her until sunrise. Afterward, Cordelia was sucked into Lorne's home dimension of Pylea, and the Angel Investigations team followed her. Eventually, after Angel defeated the undefeated Champion of Pylea, the Groosalugg, they returned with a new team member, Winifred "Fred" Burkle, in tow, and learned that Buffy had died. Devastated by Buffy's death, Angel spent several months mourning her in a Tibetan monastery in Sri Lanka, returning despondent and believing that he had betrayed Buffy by continuing to live while she was dead, though Cordelia assured him that he was in fact honoring her memory by continuing to fight the good fight in Buffy's stead. After Buffy was resurrected a few months later by Willow, Angel was overjoyed and immediately went to meet her between Sunnydale and Los Angeles. |-| Logs= Category:Character